Hello. My father passed on thanksgiving evening. He was 69 and had no symptoms/ was on no meds. He had early prostate cancer 3 years ago and underwent radiation and hormone injections. During all those tests docs said he had the heart of a lion! However on Tgiving evening we were watching tv and chatting. My mom asked him to pass the remote and we all heard a tiny gurgling noise and looked to see his head back mouth open - almost grotesque looking. We did CPR and the ambulance came with defibs within 10 mins but we couldn't get him back. The doc said a massive heart attack and at the time we were in such shock we accepted it. I never thought I would have to carry my poor fathers body out of his house after Tgiving lunch. Now I am researching more and it seems that it's very rare to have a heart attack with no chest pain or symptoms and that massive heartattack is not even a medical term. What makes me even more suspicious is that my father had a skin cancer removed from side of his head 15 years ago and at the point where they 'fused' the new skin from the leg with his scalp there was a trickle of blood after he died? Can a heart attack cause bleeding in the head? I would love to find the real cause of his sudden passing. I am not happy with massive heartattack at all, especially on account of the blood from the head. Would anyone confirm or discount my suspicions? Thank you all for reading.

The reality is, that unless you had an autopsy done, you will never know the real cause.

But people die from heart attacks very day who had no symptoms. One name for it is silent ischemia.....heart problems that are "silent" with no warning signs or pain. In men, many will experience shoulder pain and chalk it up to doing too much when in fact, it's a heart attack happening. Some many have jaw pain and figure it's a bad tooth and put it off or call for an appointment with the dentist...and never get there as they die from a heart attack.

This kind of silent heart attack runs in my family. Both of my grandfathers dropped dead without a single pain or even a noise...just dropped. So did my uncle, in the middle of a business meeting. Another died in his sleep. Two cousins have died form this as well despite us all knowing about it...one at work and the other in her sleep. So I have regular tests to see if they can detect anything going on. I know the chances are that I will never feel it coming until it hits.

Heart attacks like we see on TV are just that...TV heart attacks. Most are nothing like that. So take the gift he has given you and watch your heart before any symptoms arise....because they may never arise. You too may have the same problem...symptomless heart problems.

I'm sorry for your loss and even more sorry you feel as if the medical community has lied to you. But he in all likelihood, died of exactly what the doc said, a massive, "painless", "symptomless", heart attack. He just left out a couple of important diagnostic words.

Jenny

The Following User Says Thank You to jennybyc For This Useful Post:Machaon (01-06-2012)

When someone dies and they say it was from a 'massive heart attack' and there were no symptoms it's usually because their heart went into Ventricular Fibrillation and then Cardiac Arrest (The gurgling sound you heard supports this) due to an artery blockage - This happens very quickly.

If this happens outside of a hospital setting the chances of survival are very very slim.

It might be some comfort to you to know that he wouldn't have felt a thing - It's kinda like been knocked out by a general anaesthetic.